The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
The present disclosure relates to a rink divider system. More particularly the present disclosure relates to a rink divider system that is configured to raise and lower a rink divider from a first, raised position where the rink divider is elevated from an ice surface to a second, lowered position where the rink divider is positioned onto the ice surface to form at least two smaller rinks.
There is a limited amount of indoor ice surfaces or rinks available for people to skate. In particular, obtaining ice time to play hockey is at a premium, especially in cold weather areas.
In many cold weather areas, youth hockey programs consume a significant amount of the available ice time on the indoor rinks. The demand for ice time causes some practices to be inconveniently scheduled for early in the morning or late at night.
However, younger children do not require a full sized rink in order to practice and hone their hockey skills or to play the game of hockey. Rather, when younger player practice on full surface rinks, the amount of ice surface and length of the rink can cause the younger players to become extremely tired which can hinder their development.
Therefore, in hockey divisions or leagues for younger players, it is typical to utilize a divider that is positioned along the centerline (or red line) of the hockey rink. The divider allows the large rink to be divided into two separate rinks, typically of equal dimensions. Being able to divide a single sheet of ice into two separate rinks, allows two youth teams to practice during the same time or two games to be played at the same time, thereby increasing the efficiency of the rink and creating more ice time for other activities.
Typical rink dividers that are currently utilized take a significant amount of time to install and remove. A typical rink divider has many sections that have to be moved into position with manual force and secured together. Installing and uninstalling the rink dividers can take some time, which decreases the availability of the rink for use.
When the ice sheet requires resurfacing, the rink divider must be disassembled and removed from the ice sheet. Once the ice sheet is resurfaced, the rink divider is moved into the selected position and reassembled. As such, there are inefficiencies in utilizing a manually installed rink divider which decreases the amount of ice time for practices and/or games that can be played on the divided rink.
The manually installed rink dividers do not typically have the structural integrity that is comparable to the strength of permanently installed boards of a hockey rink, at least due in part to their non-permanent, component-based installation. Therefore, if a person engages or crashes into the divider, at times the divider or a section of the dividers can be moved, which affects the play in the adjacent rinks.